Equal Time with the Kiddos

I have been thinking about writing this post for a while. I feel so blessed that my children get to spend equal time with both of their parents. Not all families raise their children this way. I grew up in an environment where my dad worked all the time and my mom stayed home with the kids. Johnny grew up in an environment where both of his parents worked and when they were working his extended family would take care of him.

I think as parents (Johnny and I) work really well together. We sat down a few months ago and discussed what it is that we both want career wise and as parents. Both of us decided that we would prefer to both work and spend time with our kiddos as oppose to one person working 5o to 60 hours a week and the other staying at home. So I work anywhere from 30 to 40 hours a week depending on the time of the year and Johnny works anywhere from 32 to 40 hours a week. Johnny typically works evenings and weekends and I work during the day on the weekdays. This has allowed us to both spend lots of time with the kiddos and continue to progress in careers. I like to think that we are a true modern family where both parents raise the children and work.

Yes sometimes our work schedules make it so that we need extra help from family and childcare (Montessori Home) but we have put careful thought into what type of extra help we needed. Johnny and I think it is very important to have our families help raise the children so that they are exposed to other people that love them. We also feel that it is really important for our children to get exposure to other children and learning environments which is why Pennington goes to Montessori Home. Our plan is to have Piper go to Montessori Home as well starting next January.

Above all I would like to thank Johnny for allowing me to continue working and for helping me to raise our children by splitting it 50/50. Love you!!!

Swimming at the YMCA

Yesterday the whole family went to the Downtown YMCA to go swimming. It was Daddy's idea and I have to say it was a lot of fun. We hung out in the Kiddie Pool where the maximum depth is 1.5 feet. Pennington to walk around everywhere and even lay down in parts where it was only 8". Pennington enjoyed playing with the balls and the noodles. I got him to go down part of the dragon slide which he thought was a lot of fun. Piper enjoyed playing in the water as well. Mostly she enjoyed watching everything that was going on around her. Below are some pictures of our swim day at the Y.

Story Time

Daddy spends Wednesday mornings with the kiddos while Mommy is at work. Almost every Wednesday morning Daddy takes both Pennington and Piper to story time at the library. Mommy did this one time and realized how difficult it is to take two little ones out in public. However, sometimes it is even worse to stay at home all day so you just have to prepare yourself for some chaos and go somewhere. This last Wednesday they ran into G.G. and Papa at the library. Below are some pictures of Pennington and G.G.

Pennington 18 Month Checkup

Pennington had his 18 month checkup on Friday. Dr. Booth said he is looking great. Below are the stats:

Weight: 23 pounds (25 percentile)

Height: 32 1/4 inches (55 percentile)

Head Circumference: 47 cm (45 percentile)

Looks like he is starting to slow down on his growth specifically in height.

Piper Six Months Old

Can you believe it? Piper is already six months old.

Over the last month she started eating solid foods (rice cereal, bananas, pears, apples, carrots and sweet potatoes). She likes everything so far. I have to say she is probably the only baby on the planet that likes rice cereal. We made it through a whole box already. I don't think we even finished a box with Pennington.

Piper is already getting up onto all fours in either the crawl position or a bear crawl position. It wont be long until she figures out how to crawl. When she does move she moves backwards and gets herself stuck in corners.

Piper is turning into a very happy little girl. She hardly ever cries anymore. When she does cry it is because she is hungry or tired.

On the sleeping front she is starting to take really good naps for everyone except for me. I guess it is good thing I went back to work so she can get in the habit of taking longer naps. She still is waking up a few time a night. On a good night only twice. I sort of think she would sleep longer if I just gave her a bottle. I'm about 99% sure the only reason she wakes up is because she is hungry.

I would also like to point out that I am still breastfeeding. This is a huge accomplishment for me and I am super proud of myself. Yes we are still supplementing with formula but whenever I can I try to breastfeed. I currently am feeding her at least 4 to 5 times a day and pumping while I am at work. I am only able to pump 5 to 6 ounces while I am at work so we are having to supplement to make up the difference. I just achieved my goal of making it six months and now I have set a goal to continue until she gets teeth. I will say that there are some days when I just want to quit because I am so tired and I think that if I just give her a bottle of formula she would sleep longer. But then I realize that this is the last time I will ever be able to breastfeed her so I just keep doing it.

Brother-Sister LOVE

Pennington has been into wanting to share things with his Sissy. Below is a picture of Pennington trying to share his water with Sissy. Keep in mind that Piper has no idea how to drink form a straw but she is sure interest now that Pennington is showing her. Pennington tries to feed her sometimes as well which is a little scary since she isn't eating really solid foods yet.

I just thought this other picture was sweet because they are both looking at the camera.

Side note: I am 100% aware that baby walkers are not safe for children. However, we got it as a gift (I DID NOT register for one). We are really good at supervising our children when they are in the walker. Right now Pennington thinks it is his car. This is just one of the many things I said before I was a parent to a 6 month old that I would NEVER do but somehow I gave in. Welcome to parenthood!

First Warm Weekend

Finally it is starting to get warm so we can get the kids outside more. This weekend it was in the low 50s. Our family had a wonderful picnic lunch at Camels Back on Saturday. Pennington played on the play sets and swung on the swings. He also kicked his ball around. There was a little soccer goal set up that he was really interested in. He would try to kick his ball into it or pick his ball up and put it in the goal. He liked it so much that I think we might need to concern getting him his own soccer goal. Piper enjoyed looking around at what everyone else was doing. We could tell she was really happy to to be outside. Below are pictures of the kids at the park.